Google Confirms Clean Energy Plan, Predicts Reduced Emissions by 2030

Google is continuing to push a national energy plan that embraces energy efficiency and renewable power. Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims the company's motives are both altruistic and a way to help its bottom line. Despite several steps the search giant has taken to reinforce its green image, some critics cite Google's massive carbon expenditures in the course of its operations.

Google
CEO Eric Schmidt has reiterated Google's
desire for a national energy plan that will cut greenhouse gas emissions nearly
in half by 2030.
Schmidt touted his plan, the latest in a string of mentions going back to
late 2008, during an environmental conference hosted by the Wall Street
Journal March 4. He claimed that such a plan would be good for the
country, while helping Google financially.

"What's really first at Google is about changing the world, in a
positive way," Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray.
"Can we make a difference? In our case, we're huge energy users, so a
relatively straightforward solution to our energy costs goes right to the bottom
line."

The plan sets a date of 2030 for getting U.S.
utilities entirely off carbon fuels, an effort that Schmidt estimates will cost
roughly $3.5 trillion over a 22-year period. This will involve establishing a
renewable portfolio standard or policy that dictates ever-increasing production
of renewable energy, paired with substantial boosts in the percentages of
renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, while keeping nuclear power at
its current levels.
On its official blog, Google claims to have invested more than $45 million
in renewable-energy startup companies in 2008 alone.

"We must dramatically increase federal R&D and enact measures
supporting the rapid deployment and scaling of clean technologies such as
long-term tax support and national renewable energy standards," Dan
Reicher, director of climate change and energy initiatives, and Jeffery Greenblatt, climate and energy technology manager for Google.org, wrote on the
Google blog on Oct. 1, 2008.
"Progress will accelerate when the price of carbon reflects its true costs
to society. Putting a price on carbon through cap-and-trade or a carbon tax
would help address this."
Other necessities would include switching transportation over to clean fuels
and improving the nation's grid technology to deliver renewable energy,
something that Google's CEO is hoping
the Obama administration can take the lead in initiating.
Schmidt said his plan will ultimately make money, generating "on a
cost basis a savings of $4.4 trillion."
Promoting energy efficiency is good for Google,
which has been criticized for its energy usage by Harvard University physicist
Alex Wissner-Gross. In January, Wissner-Gross claimed to a UK
newspaper that two Google searches of up to several minutes' duration could
generate 14 grams of CO2, close to what it takes to boil a kettle of water for
tea.
At the time, John Buckley, managing director of environmental consultancy
Carbon Footprint, was cited in the London Times as putting Google's
per-search CO2 emissions at between 1 and 10 grams; Chris Goodall, author of "Ten
Technologies to Save to the Planet," claimed the carbon expenditure was
between 7 and 10 grams.
Kevin Marks, a Google OpenSocial evangelist, said, "Google's
data centers are carbon-neutral, so it is only the client end you do have to
worry about. However, breathing generates about 6g of carbon every 10
minutes."
In February, Google officials announced that the company was
designing a software tool called Google
PowerMeter, which consumers can use to track their energy consumption from
their computers in real time.

"Companies always couch these things in altruistic terms, but they also
benefit directly from any efficiencies in the energy area," Roger Kay, an
analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, said in an interview. "With
Google or anyone else, there's an element of being a very large player that
gives you a lot of voice."
Being Google CEO "gave [Schmidt] the
megaphone," Kay added, "and it's too good to resist."

Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.